Not usually a sport aaociated with Inov-8, but although I only climb once a week, I qualified for the Welsh final of the BMC Indoor Climbing in Cardiff over the weekend. Really good day with excellent facilities at Boulders in Cardiff. Got 8th in the end, not too bad for a part timer!!
How do you train for a 2,650 mile walk?
You . . . well, walk!
I've been carrying a backpack with 10 litres of water (about 10 kilos in weight) whenever I go out for a stroll. Ideally, and unfortunately, this means going up and down a local steep hill several times. Monotonous but necessary. Of course I'm still going for longer walks as well, that's never boring.
2 hours of exercises each day such as raising a lowering a straight leg whilst sitting in a chair, with 4 cans of baked beans hanging off to make it harder - and it does hurt. Walking lightly exercises all of the required muscle sets but others, such as calf's and quadriceps need strengthening.
The psychological training I can't really do anything to prepare for, that kicks in when I set off.
Keep up to date with my posts and walk the PCT with me.
This weekend was the British University Orienteering Championships, hosted by Bristol University Orienteering Club.
Saturday was the Individual race in the Forest of Dean. My mind wandered a little bit as I was more concerned with not hurting my hip on the terrain while running hard (turned out not to be a problem) so was a bit scrappy and as a result finished 12minutes down on the winner (a bit lower than I had anticipated....
GG was in a tight battle for 1st place coming through the spectator control, however Edinburgh's Scott Fraser had grown wings and flew to victory, leaving GG in 2nd.
Sunday was the relays - There were a lot of strong womens teams and ShUOCs first team were aiming not to be beaten by the Edinburgh 2nd Team (6/top 10 in the individual were EUOC). I went out of first leg with some strong orienteers and by the spectator control it was apparent we were capable of much more than not being beaten twice by Edinburgh. I felt I was running very slowly, however this pace allowed me to spike everything and keep with Jess Halliday and Rachel Majumdar on the first gaffle. I then ran the 2nd gaffle and stayed with Mairead Rocke, Liz Bridge and Becky Hoare, however they edged ahead of me on the run in putting me into 5th. On my course I was fastest and set Lauren Ferrand off with people clearly in sight to chase down! She had a great run pulling up a position to 4th and coming 2nd on her course by 4s! There were a few teams not too far ahead at this point and Laura Daniel set off well. By the spectator control she was in 2nd with Anne Edwards of Oxford and Chloe Haines of Edinburgh hot on her heals! This meant a tense wait! About 9 minutes later Anne entered the finishing field just ahead of Laura! Anne was running hard, and Chloe was nowhere to be seen! ShUOC were in 3rd! This was an amazing race for us and my first BUCS medal!
The Steyning Stinger Off Road Marathon
What an endurance event ! That just about describes the drive down there at least. I am, however, no stranger to "that" drive as i grew up in Sussex and spent much time up on the South Downs. I therefore had a very handy B&B (Parents house) just 5 miles from the start of the race and, as it turned out, a finely tuned support resource for during the race itself ( they popped up everywhere ).
So, what was it that tempted a "proper" hill runner to do a race amongst the "bumps" that are the South Downs ? Well, in order to the enter the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado i needed a marathon time ( the 26.2 mile variety not the usual mountain marathon to which i am better accustomed ). There was, however, no way that i would knock out this distance on Tarmac so i decided to trawl the net for something more up my street - and bingo , this race cropped up on the radar.
The organisation for the race was almost faultless. Almost faultless in that they seemed to omit one key fact when informing runners about the starting procedure. The marathon started at 8.30am but any runners could start earlier if they felt they needed a bit more time. A great idea given that marshalls would not then have to be out for the whole day. I theerfore presented myself at the start at 8.10am, was counted through the start and duly disappeared off for a wee and a warm-up ( not that keen really - but it was about minus 3C ! ). When i returned to the start line the marshall was clearly intrigued as to what i was doing back so soon . It appeared that when you turned up to the start and crossed the line they started timing you . In effect , it'd be a 26.2 mile time-trial ! So, i set off for the second time .
The course was nearly all off road and took runners on several large loops that made good use of the many bridleways and footpaths. The tracks themselves were hardpacked to start ( frozen ) and then a really nice sticky clay texture when the sun warm up that top layer. There were gates, stiles, road crossings and boggy fields ..... rather reminicent of my school cross country days ( albeit slightly longer )
It could be quite hard doing a long time-trial but i guess i'm used to spending long runs on my own . All i had to do was find "the pace" and chug along. It may have been billed as a killer route but with only 3000 foot climb in the entire distance it was all feeling pretty flat to me . The drinks stations were regular , the mile markers ticked and , as most runners had set off before me there were plenty to catch. My parents rallyed around this quiet corner of Sussex to be at the next checkpoint and i seemed to be hitting my predicted times. Instead of flagging in the final miles i actually got a wee bit faster as i realised that i was almost done. One final slippery descent saw me stop the clock at 3.14.
I knew i had run pretty consistently well and i'd had no disasters but i was slightly surprised to see my winning margin was 8 minutes over 2nd place. At race HQ it was interesting hearing folks discussing the race ...... Torture, killer climbs, treacherous descents etc etc ..... did make me think - "Anyone for the Peris Horsehoe ????"
1 week on and the legs are back to normal and fully looking forward to a couple of Real Fell Races in the next couple of weeks before a few days Alpine ski-touring and then to Gairloch for the Highander Mountain Marathon.
By Chris Near
Result:
01:17:05 Robbie Simpson
01:17:06 Paul Raistrick
Saturday 13th March 2010
Due to snow & ice scheduled "Larig Mhor" race was re-routed through 13.6miles of mixed terrain, North of Fort William.
Full results: www.lochaberac.co.uk
This was to be the furthest I have run off snow since mid December 2009, so I was looking for a fast run. Robbie Simpson (SaabSalomon) had also come over from snowbound East and ensured it was. I lead for the first 12miles but 2 miles from the end Robbie was back on my heals. A final 100m sprint for the line saw Robbie finish a couple of meters ahead in 77:05. I was most impressed by the way he came back from mid race, real mental and physical strength from such a young athlete.
Training in the Cairngorms and Norway has been tough and dark (respectively) for the last 3 months. Training with Jethro during his ski visits North in December and February helped me stay focussed on running as opposed to shovelling snow. Thanks.
Fortunately with a firmer snowpack over the last 10 days I have been able to add a high level training run round the Northern Corries most days. This is what makes winter running special.
But just as the snow is becoming runnable in the forests of StrathSpey I head back to work in Haugesund and the snow.
As we will be running on high level snow into the late Summer of 2010 in Scotland those tungsten studded ORocs cannot come out soon enough.
Scotsman Newspaper - Magazine - Saturday 13th March 2010
Some photos from the Scotsman article. South Gully - Lurchers Crag, Cairngorms
See:
www.scotsman.com/scotsmanmagazine/Outdoors-Scotland-is-the-perfect.6150452.jp
Corrections:
"This August he will race..." (should have read)
"This August he hopes to race..."
"ice climbing grades stop at VI" (should have read)
"ice climbing grades stop at XI in Scotland"
The PCT is a long distance route beginning at the border between California and Mexico, near a little place called Campo, about 12 miles south of San Diego. It winds it way north through the States of
It boasts the greatest elevation changes of any of
As the crow flies, the distance from start to finish is about 1000 miles. However, due to the PCT weaving east and west, the total distance is some 2650 miles. The ‘average’ thru-hiker (a person who completes the PCT in one attempt) takes around 6 months to undertake the trail and walks around 15 to 20 miles each day. ‘Zero’ days (rest days where no walking is done) happen about once a week. I’ll be posting some ‘Fun Facts’ about the PCT every few days. Here’s the first one:
